School Is Fully Accredited

Superintendent Kenny Garland announced at the July 19 Jasper County Board of Education meeting the system’s achievement of full accreditation after a recent four day review by the COGNIA review team.

As a leader in school improvement initiatives, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization conducts on-site and virtual reviews of school systems across the world for accreditation.

Cognia defines continuous improvement as, “an embedded behavior rooted in an institution’s culture that constantly focuses on conditions, processes, and practices to improve teaching and learning.”

Accreditation is pivotal in leveraging education quality and continuous improvement.

A five-member team of educators from Cognia reviewed evidence, interviewed stakeholders, and attended a presentation by Superintendent Garland in April 2022. During the review of system evidence and interviews, the Cognia team gained a broad understanding of the district’s quality and rated effectiveness of the Performance Standards based on three Domains: Leadership Capacity, Learning Capacity, and Resource Capacity.

The system’s final review report was announced yesterday, and Jasper County Schools earned a system IEQ (Index of Education Quality) score of 337.58. The maximum score is 400. This score is also higher than the average score of 278-283 earned by other institutions that have undergone a Cognia review within the last five years. The system earned the highest rating of Impacting in 15 out of 31 standards.

Superintendent Garland thanked all of the leadership team and stakeholders that participated in the review. “The results from the review are clear evidence the system is improving and is making strides in student achievement.”